Vancouver’s Main Street Car Free Day

Car Free Day on Main Street is a festival on the Sunday of the Father’s Day weekend in June featuring live music, market vendors and thousands of people.

In 2019 the pedestrian street party takes place on Sunday, June 16, from 12 until 7 pm.

As June 16th is Father’s Day (which is when Main Street Car Free Day always takes place), expect to see lots of dads and their families at the event! What a great way to celebrate the day!

Car Free Day on Main Street in 2019

Car Free Day on Main Street is just one of several Car Free Day events in the Lower Mainland. Other Car Free Day events take place on different days in the summer on Denman Street, Commercial Drive, North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Avenue and various smaller streets throughout Kitsilano. See below for further details.

Car Free Day on Main Street

About Main Street Car Free Day

Main Street Car Free Day happens on the afternoon of the Father’s Day Sunday in June. On that day tens if not hundreds of thousands of people fill Main Street between Broadway and 30th Avenue.

At the Main Street Car Free Day event there are live bands, street performers, market vendors, extended restaurant patios, mini beer gardens, food trucks and all kinds of things to do and see.

Of all of Vancouver’s various Car Free Day festivals, the Main Street event is the largest. The street party runs along some 20 or so blocks and features performances on over a dozen stages.

Other Car Free Day Events

The equally impressive West End Car Free Day takes place on Denman Street the day before the Main Street event, so on the Saturday of the Father’s Day weekend.

In past years the Commercial Drive Car Free Day event also took place on the Sunday of the Father’s Day week. As of 2017, however, it takes place in early July instead, which makes sense as the two virtually identical events now no longer compete on the same day.

Two other Car Free Day events include Car Free block parties throughout Kitsilano on both the Saturday and Sunday of the Father’s Day weekend, and the Fun City Festival in North Vancouver in July.

Non-Car Free Day Street Parties

The Main Street, Denman Street, Commercial Drive, Lonsdale Avenue and Kitsilano Car Free Day events are all “official” Car Free Day events. There are a number of other major events in Metro Vancouver that are similar, but not part of the official “Car Free Day” family.

Instead of purposefully celebrating the pedestrian way of life and having a slightly anti-car and pro-environmental theme, the following other street parties look pretty similar but have more of a cultural and/or ethnic focus:

Vancouver Vaisakhi Parade and Surrey Vaisakhi Parade – East Indian cultural events that draw hundreds of thousands of people into the streets in both South Vancouver and Surrey on subsequent Saturdays around the second and third weekends in April.

Italian Day on the Drive – an Italian-themed street party with extended restaurant patios, live music, vendor stalls, food trucks and crowds of people in the street on Commercial Drive on a Sunday in early to mid-June.

Greek Day on Broadway – a major street festival with a Greek theme that takes place in Kitsilano along Broadway Avenue in late June.

Khatsahlano Street Party – another massive street party in Kitsilano but this time along West 4th Avenue in early July. Instead of having an ethnic cultural theme, the Khatsahlano Street Party is a music and arts festival that just happens to take place along the middle of a major road.

Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Fest – a street festival that takes place in New Westminster along Columbia Street in late July and features live music and hundreds of food trucks.

Taiwanese Cultural Festival– an Asian-themed cultural festival that takes place along Granville Street in the heart of downtown Vancouver on the long weekend in September.

Other Information

For more information about the Main Street Car Free Day event, see the Car Free Days website.

Information on this website is accurate to the best of our ability at the time of writing, but actual details may vary. Vancouver's Best Places does not accept responsibility for loss or inconvenience due to errors. For the most up-to-date information see relevant official websites.

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